Bolivia’s inflation slows to 5% annually, its lowest level since the 2025 crisis peak

Bolivia has cut nearly 20 percentage points from its annual inflation rate in just over a year. Consumer-price growth fell from a peak of 24.86% in July 2025 to 5.02% in August 2026, according to the National Statistics Institute.

The August figures showed a monthly increase of 1.10%, largely because chicken became more expensive. The rise did not reverse the broader decline in inflation. From January through July 2025, annual inflation climbed from 12.03% to 24.86%. It began to ease in August and then slowed more sharply during 2026.

Annual inflation stood at 19.64% in January, 17.41% in February, 15.05% in March, 14.18% in April, 12.51% in May, 9.23% in June, 4.93% in July and 5.02% in August. Inflation accumulated during the first eight months of 2026 reached 3.01%, compared with 18.09% during the same period of 2025.

The monthly figures shifted sharply between July and August. July recorded a 2.79% decline, the strongest monthly deflation in the 2025-26 series. August then posted the highest monthly increase since June. The statistics institute said chicken prices rose 25.16% and contributed 0.53 percentage points to the overall index. Mobile phones rose 9.01%, contributing 0.05 points.

The institute linked the chicken-price increase to delays in restocking poultry farms after 53 days of road blockades. Prices partially reversed from the second week of August as production normalized. The blockades caused multimillion-dollar losses in Bolivia’s poultry sector during 2025 and 2026. Prices fell for interdepartmental bus transport, tomatoes, boneless beef, green peas, eggs and bone-in beef, while the August increase varied by region, led by Oruro, Potosí and the Santa Cruz conurbation.